Disavowed candidate still carried Memphis

5:04 AM,
Nov. 18, 2012

The Democratic Party disavowed Mark Clayton because of his purported hate-group ties.

Written by

Michael Cass
| The Tennessean

For a candidate who had been called just about every name in the book by his own political party, Mark Clayton did awfully well in the state's two biggest cities on Election Day.

Clayton was disavowed by the Tennessee Democratic Party less than 24 hours after winning the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat in August. Party leaders urged voters to write in anyone else's name, and The Washington Post went so far as to suggest last month that the man with the anti-gay views and the conspiracy theories about "FEMA prison camps" might just be "America's worst candidate."